Cannibal claim by Briton who killed woman

A Briton who had claimed to have killed and eaten a woman is facing 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter in a Spanish court.

Paul Durant, 47, from east London, admitted killing Karen Durrell, 41, who had moved to Spain from Ilford in Essex in January 2004 to start a new life at Calpe on the Costa Blanca.

After his arrest in February 2004, Durant wrote a letter in his cell saying that he had been driven to kill and eat her by messages from God arriving via his television.

"After I killed her I cut her body into small parts, eating what part of her I found eatable," he wrote, "I finally disposed of what was left in small rubbish bags around Calpe."

The body of Ms Durell, a mother of two, has never been found, while Durant now only admits battering his victim to death with a mallet before leaving her body in her apartment. At the time he was on the run from British police, having escaped prison guards while on a hospital visit in London after his arrest for an attempted armed robbery on a security van.

In a statement released last night, Ms Durell's family said: "Not knowing exactly what happened to Karen adds to our pain still further. We draw little comfort from the conclusion of today's proceedings and as a family cannot find closure or move on with our lives at this time."